The present disclosure relates generally to transponders, and more particularly to programming a radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder.
Transponders such as, for example, RFID transponders, may be used to track objects. RFID transponders are wireless electronic tags which broadcast preprogrammed data stored in a non-volatile memory. The RFID transponder is typically programmed to identify an object and then coupled to that object such that an RFID transceiver can receive the broadcast from the RFID transponder in order to identify the object. The programming of the RFID transponder raises a number of issues.
Conventionally, RFID transponders includes an electronically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) which may be programmed by an RFID transceiver using radio waves. However, sometimes it is desirable to include a label on the RFID transponder which allows human-readable information to be printed on the RFID transponder in order to provide a single object tag which may be coupled to an object and read by both machines and humans.
In order to create these RFID transponder labels, an RFID transponder label printer is typically provided. The RFID transponder is included in a label which may be printed on. The RFID transponder label printer includes an RFID transceiver such that the RFID transponder label printer may be used to print the object information on the label while programming the RFID transponder with information corresponding to the object.
However, this method for programming a transponder requires that a user have the RFID transponder label printer, as a conventional printer does not include the RFID transceiver necessary to program the RFID transponder. This results in increased costs to the user, as the user must purchase a relatively expensive RFID transponder label printer to create RFID transponder labels.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide for programming a transponder absent the disadvantages discussed above.